Subscriber of the Gods Chapter 366 - How Much

Asterian was a city of Dark Elves located on the eastern edge.

Once, the Dark Elves built a large city and lived on this eastern edge, but now they were living in clusters at the eastern end, almost as if in hiding.

“You helped me… I’m sorry for being rude from the start. And I’m sorry for throwing up…”

“…”

The two had been running continuously since they reached the entrance of the forest leading into Asterian.

“It’s okay. It didn’t get on my clothes.”

“…Actually, I’ve had some bad things happen recently.”

Arean explained the whole story of this incident while saying that.

“We Dark Elves have a special characteristic. Humans target our lives because of this special characteristic. In fact, something bad happened just recently…”

‘As expected, humans are the problem again.’

How could other races like humans in this situation?

At the very least, they’re wary when they meet, and in many cases, they attack without a word.

If they don’t, they’ll be attacked in return.

“I know. Not all humans are like that. But all the humans I’ve encountered so far have been nothing but those kinds of bastards. A special gem grows inside us Dark Elves. Those bastards have been attacking us for that gem.”

“Black obsidian.”

When Dark Elves train their mana for a long time, a gem forms in their body.

It’s similar to a mana stone, but this black obsidian grown inside a Dark Elf’s body contained mana of incomparably higher quality than other mana stones.

“You know about it. Black obsidian is like a crystallization of mana that has accumulated in the body for a long time, and when a Dark Elf dies, it used to pass that power on to the next generation. But the humans who target black obsidian aren’t after the mana.”

Black obsidian has a unique beauty different from other gems.

The basic color is black, but if you look closely, you can see numerous colors mixed inside. When exposed to light, this characteristic becomes prominently visible.

That’s why collectors considered this black obsidian as a special grade among gems.

It was natural given the high demand compared to the low supply.

“They’re taking our lives for luxury. Simply to obtain black obsidian.”

This incident was also related to black obsidian.

“My father… died at the hands of a hunter who was after black obsidian. But he didn’t just fall to a hunter.”

“They called the hunter.”

Ethan seemed to roughly understand what the situation was.

“Migos must have leaked information to the hunters. They probably received a large sum of money. Plus, they were originally aiming for the Elf Lord position. They must have planned to kill two birds with one stone.”

Arean nodded at Ethan’s words.

“That’s exactly right. And there’s one more important thing. A seed from the World Tree sprouted recently. They said it was planted by our ancestor a thousand years ago. It’s only now that it has sprouted.

The World Tree possesses powerful life energy.

“My father’s goal was to gather all elf races under that World Tree. Because the forests where elves currently exist don’t have a World Tree.”

Moreover, since Asterian was near a cliff and lacked vegetation, it needed a World Tree even more.

“We were one step away from regaining our former glory. After the sprout appeared, the World Tree grew at a terrifying speed. If people knew that a World Tree was growing here, various elves would come to this place, and they would soon become the elves constituting our Asterian.”

If that happened, the power structure could be considered essentially settled.

How could they overthrow an Elf Lord who had achieved such a feat?

“In the end, those Migos bastards crossed the line. They leaked information to the hunters. They attacked when my father went to the Spring of Life… and everything went wrong after that. I was too young to qualify as a lord, but I became one urgently. I guess they thought the lord position would naturally pass to Migos when my father died.”

The plan had gone awry, so they kidnapped the newly appointed Elf Lord, Arean.

“They must have attacked our Yugos clan simultaneously with my kidnapping. Because all that’s left now is the World Tree. My father is gone, and I, the newly appointed Elf Lord, have been kidnapped, so the Yugos clan has essentially lost everything. If they take the World Tree in this situation… Migos will swallow up Asterian just like that!”

As Arean said, it could be seen as quite an urgent situation.

Ethan observed the continuously flowing aura of Moonforce while listening to Arean’s story.

‘More of Moonforce’s aura comes out according to emotional changes. It seems that she’s resisting the poison Migos fed her to some extent because of Moonforce’s power.’

Seeing that she possessed Moonforce’s aura, Ethan thought that Dark Elves might have believed in Moonforce in the past.

‘Just because they no longer believe doesn’t mean all that power disappears. The form of belief might have changed.’

For example, that World Tree.

They say an ancestor planted the seed, but there’s a possibility that Moonforce itself gave that seed.

“We’re here!”

Bang-! Bang-!

As expected, the situation was serious. The forest around was burning along with screams.

“Quickly, inside.”

Arean, who was rushing to run inside, discovered a Dark Elf collapsed at the entrance.

“Ah, Lady Arean…”

“Shiz, what happened!”

“I’m glad… you’re alive. We thought we had lost Lady Arean as well…”

Blood flowed from the elf’s mouth.

“Migos finally made their move… They were about to uproot the World Tree… We barely stopped them… but now that front line is being breached. I came to request help…”

“And we caught you.”

Swish-!

At that moment, arrows flew.

They were arrows aimed precisely at the back of Arean and Ethan’s heads. They were fast and powerful enough to kill instantly if hit.

However, Arean was currently poisoned. Therefore, she couldn’t use mana and couldn’t deal with the rapidly approaching arrows.

“No… way.”

For a moment, images of her past flashed before her eyes.

Scenes from when she was young…

But soon those images were torn away and disappeared.

“!”

It was because Ethan had lightly caught the arrows with his hand.

‘It’s been a while since I’ve done this. It still works well.’

It was one of the skills he often used in MePan, but because it basically required a sturdy body, he couldn’t use it with Ethan’s body.

‘This is also thanks to the increase in believers.’

It was practically equivalent to undergoing physical awakening once more.

-Arrow Catching skill is added!

-Skill Added: Arrow Catching (B+)

A skill was added, probably because he caught the arrow perfectly.

“Count Ethan…!”

“Didn’t I tell you? That you’d only be a hindrance.”

“But… right now, I’m in the position of a lord responsible for Asterian.”

“Interesting, interesting. Are you trying to imitate us working with humans, young elf? What was the council thinking, choosing such a young elf as lord? If your father died, shouldn’t the next in line naturally be a capable elf from our Yugos clan who assisted your incompetent father!”

The elf who shot the arrow spewed abuse.

It was quite insulting.

Arean trembled at those words.

“You know how to provoke quite well?”

Ethan, who was clearly in front of Arean just now, was suddenly in front of the Dark Elf who shot the arrow.

“!”

The startled Dark Elf hurriedly stepped back while simultaneously reaching for an arrow. But there was no bow in his hand.

Swoosh-.

Eventually, Ethan’s fist filled the Dark Elf’s vision.

Bueok-!

“What…”

Before he could even say “hey,” the Dark Elf on the opposite side also collapsed just like that.

“It’s really hard to adapt.”

This time, Ethan moved with ultra-acceleration added.

As the two Dark Elves were instantly brought down by Ethan, Arean’s expression was filled with surprise and bewilderment.

Ethan, who had taken down the two Dark Elves who shot arrows in the blink of an eye, was naturally approaching in front of her as if he had never moved.

“Wh-what happened…”

“Just as you saw.”

Ethan said the exact same thing he had said in the prison.

“Did you… handle it, Count Ethan? I couldn’t even see you!”

Arean didn’t know how Ethan had moved in the prison because she had been unconscious. She had only seen the result of him subduing numerous enemies alone.

And now that she had seen his skills directly, she couldn’t help but be surprised. It was truly overwhelming ability.

“So the rumors were all true.”

Arean, who had been quite anxious until just now, suddenly felt like all the tension was draining away.

She started to feel a sense of stability as if it were a lie.

Only now did she realize what a reliable ally she had gained.

“There’s something we need to do before going inside.”

Ethan looked at Arean.

“Let’s start with treatment first.”

“…Treatment?”

“It’ll only take a moment.”

“A moment? I… I know it takes quite a long time to treat this poison… Even though Count Ethan is kindly helping us, it’s okay not to treat it right away. It’s not like I’m going to die immediately. I’m sorry to say this, but we can’t delay any longer…”

Ethan moved before Arean could finish speaking.

Using Hua Tuo’s Abdominal Surgery, he instantly opened Arean’s torso area and removed the core part that was poisoning her body.

-Extinction burns away the poison.

“Done.”

“…Pardon?”

“The treatment is done.”

“…It really was just a moment.”

Arean was extremely surprised.

“Try drawing up your mana once.”

Following Ethan’s words, Arean drew up her mana.

Shaaaak-.

As if it had never happened, mana began to circulate fiercely in her body.

“It’s all healed.”

It was detoxified really cleanly.

“By the way… how much should I pay for your help…?”

“That’s…”

Ethan said with a smile.

“As much as you’re grateful, Elf Lord.”

“…”

The stability she had just felt changed slightly into anxiety.

Ethan smiled at her and said,

“Asterian is in danger. Let’s hurry.”